Hundertwasser Toilet #6

Hundertwasser Toilet #5

Holiday Wishes

I thought I'd take a break from toilet block shots to wish everyone the best of the holiday season. With our families so far away, we are spending today and the next couple of days visiting with friends and watching the cricket and relaxing at the beach.

We've had some rain over the last couple of days, always a good thing, but not much of it falling in the dams so the water restrictions and the severe drought continue. But, for now, the garden has perked up and I actually have blossoms on one of my azaleas.

For a bit of Aussie Christmas, check out the Christmas Eve post from the girls at Material Obsession.

Hundertwasser Toilet #4

The artist Frederick Hundertwasser designed a public toilet in Kawakawa on the far North Island of New Zealand. He was splitting his time between The Bay of Islands and Europe, mainly Vienna. When the local council decided in 1998 to update the public toilets, he offered his design and it was accepted. This is the only Hunderwasser structure in the Southern hemisphere and one of his last major works.

And it is one of the most photographed public toilets in the world.

Here are a couple of web sites for more information ...
Hundertwasser toilets
Hundertwasser's Kawakawa Toilets
Hundertwasser's Ultimate Stand

Hundertwasser Toilet #3

Hundertwasser Toilet #2

Hundertwasser Toilet #1

Water, Water Everywhere and All the Boards Did Shrink

Dome

Excellent Gift Gifts

What do you get someone who has everything? This year, instead of giving them more stuff, try something different.

Oxfam has some excellent gift ideas that will help make the world a better place.

HRH and some of her band friends have been busking on the weekends and have raised over $200 for Oxfam. They are going to use the money to buy goats and ducks and maybe a pig.

Feel Like We're Being Watched

A Christmas Meme

I found this Christmas meme on Nic's blog, so here's my go.

1. Apple cider, Eggnog, or Hot Chocolate? Eggnog with nutmeg sprinkled on top. Spiked, of course, not because I enjoy alcoholic beverages but more to keep with the holiday spirit

2. Turkey or Ham? Cold prawns, fresh salads, chilled fruit with nice, cold champers works for me

3. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Wrapped of course.

4. Colored lights or white on the tree? White, please

5. Do you get a fake or real-you-cut-it-yourself Christmas tree? When I was growing up, we had a very attractive silver aluminium tree with royal blue balls and a light on the floor with a rotating disk that turned the tree different colours. Of course, this was in the front window so that all the neighbours could enjoy our tree as well. I'd love a real tree (if only for the smell) but Aussie summer isn't the time for a fire hazard sitting in your lounge room. So we've got an artificial tree that we set up when we are at home for Christmas

6. Favorite Christmas song? Anything by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole or King's College Choir suits me down to the ground

7. How do you feel about Christmas movies? The old ones are OK ... A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street ... but the new ones are just that bit too unbearable for me.

8. What is your favorite holiday dish? My mom's homemade fudge

9. When is it too early to start listening to Christmas music? Until the Christmas tree is up at home, it's too early. And any time in public before November ... WAY to early!

10. What is your favorite holiday smell? Homemade apple or pumpkin pies baking in the oven

11. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I grew up listening to Santa swear every Christmas Eve. He swore just like my dad did. Wasn't too hard to figure out.

12. What kind of decorations are on your Christmas Tree? Handmade or the ones from friends. We've got a collection of Texan, Mainer, quilt and Australian ornaments spread throughout the tree branches. And then there are the ones that HRH has made over the years and the Green Pickle

13. Do you open a present or presents on Christmas Eve, or wait until Christmas Day? One on Christmas Eve ... the rest on Christmas morning

14. Go to someone else’s house or they come to you? Usually we are at home in the morning and go over to a Luke & Linda's for Christmas lunch. We are rarely home before dark

15. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I love the giving part best

Thanks for this meme, Nic. If any of you feel like picking up this meme for your own blog, please let me know so I can read your answers. Merry Christmas!!!

If you are English or enjoy English cricket, I suggest that you stop reading now.

You were warned.

This meme doesn't cover on my favourite Christmas tradition -- the Boxing Day test in Melbourne. It's the first day of a 5-day cricket test for those of you who live outside Australia and, with the kids out of school, marks the official beginning of summer in Australia. This year, Australia is playing the English for the Ashes, a rather diminutive trophy that carries with it the pride of a nation. The Aussies lost it to the Poms last year, so this is a pretty important rematch. Unfortunately the Poms sent their B team Down Under this summer, so I am quietly confident that they won't be taking it home with them when the series finishes. Tonk a Pom!

Skyline

Horizontal

Christmas Ugly FQ Swap

At the Sydney SCQuilters Christmas gathering, I tossed a couple of really ugly FQs into the swap with the hope that my run of never winning anything would see me through this one safely. But Lady Luck, she is nothing if not fickle and these little beauties are now mine to make into something before next year's SCQuilters Christmas gathering.

Given the 'unique' charater of these FQs, I'm not sure that a full year will be quite long enough. I'm going to have to muster all my courage just to take them into a patchwork shop and try to find something, anything, to go with them.

Perhaps the answer is to play Dr Frankenstein and subject them to a number of fiendish textile experiments first ...

Skyline

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Molting

GPO Clock Tower

Hole in the Ozone